Gomorra: Le origini

Gomorrah: The Origins returns to the roots of the narrative universe that redefined Italian crime storytelling on television, shifting the action to late-1970s Naples to trace the making of Pietro Savastano, here a teenager played by Luca Lubrano, a nobody's son raised in the poorest corner of the Secondigliano district. Created by Leonardo Fasoli and Maddalena Ravagli together with Biagio Forestieri and Flavio Furno, who also plays the character of 'O Paisano in the series, the show follows Pietro through small everyday hustles, dreams of economic escape and a first youthful love with Imma, played by Tullia Venezia, up to the decisive encounter with Angelo, known as 'A Sirena, the local boss played by Francesco Pellegrino, which marks his true entry into organized crime. Produced by Sky Studios and Cattleya, the same production company behind the flagship series, this new six-episode season keeps the raw, unromanticized, anti-rhetorical gaze, free of any aesthetic fascination with criminality, that turned Gomorrah into an international phenomenon and shaped how Italian and European fiction depict organized crime.

Unlike many prequels, which often simply fill narrative gaps left by the original show, The Origins tries to render a precise historical and social context, that of late-1970s Naples amid post-'68 disillusionment and the decade's economic crisis, in which organized crime finds fertile ground precisely because of the lack of real alternatives for the poorest segments of the population. For longtime viewers, the series works as a retrospective key to already familiar characters, while for new audiences it serves as an entry point into one of the most influential television universes ever produced in Italy, one still capable, with this new chapter, of generating substantial critical and popular debate.